Lucille Ball used to joke that she never sat next to legislators at dinner, because they never pass anything.

Our state Legislature proved her wrong in 2006, especially on health care. We passed important new reforms to move us closer to our goal of being the healthiest state in the nation.

Health Insurance for Kids, Families

For example, teachers, parents and health care professionals are thrilled that an additional 7,000 children gained access to health coverage this year - fully 80,000 additional children in just the past two years.

This is important. Kids stay healthier, do better in school and spread less disease to other kids when they're insured. It's also smart budget policy. A year of children's health coverage ($1,284) costs far less than even one hospitalization (typically over $3,000) for health problems that get out of hand if they're not diagnosed and treated early.

We're also enrolling 6,500 more working adults in the Basic Health Plan. This successful (and voter-supported) program has dramatically reduced the number of uninsured citizens, and will now help even more families.

Small Business Health Insurance Partnership

We listened to business and passed the Small Business Health Insurance Partnership, which will begin offering premium assistance in 2007 to help more small businesses insure their lower-income workers.

Small businesses are the unsung heroes of our economy, but they're having a hard time paying for health insurance. In fact, lower-income employees of small businesses are losing health insurance faster than anyone else.

Businesses like the voluntary partnership because it is not a mandate and won't create any red tape or paperwork burdens. What it will do is help small businesses and workers gain access to good health coverage at even less cost to taxpayers than the popular Basic Health Plan. It's a win-win-win for Washington.

Respect for Living Wills

The heart-breaking Terri Schiavo case in Florida - and the unconscionable meddling of the Congress in private family matters - inspired state lawmakers to create a secure, statewide on-line registry of personal directives on end of life care.

The Schiavo case led a great many people (including me) to document final health-care wishes with living wills and other advanced medical directives. The online registry will ensure these health care wishes are respected by health care providers everywhere in Washington - with secure protections for patient privacy.

Patient Safety and Liability Reform

Who could imagine a year ago that doctors and lawyers would agree on ways to improve patient safety and curb rising medical liability costs?

But Gov. Chris Gregoire and other leaders didn't give up. We found common ground and passed a comprehensive package of 19 reforms that all sides agree will reduce medical errors, ease liability insurance increases, and streamline the civil justice system. The whistleblower, legible prescription and other reforms in the package have the potential to save many lives.

These reforms also show if we work together in a spirit of good will, we can tackle even the toughest challenges.

Other 2006 Accomplishments

There isn't space here to describe all improvements made to our health care system this year. In addition to the gains I've already mentioned, we took important steps to:

- Reduce health-care costs through smarter use of computerized medical records and health technology;

- Improve funding for long-term care-while ending the nursing home bed tax that had cost $1,900 per bed each year;

- Ensure equity in wages and benefits for home-care providers who help elderly and disabled citizens receive good long-term care in their own homes;

- Help local health departments prepare for the potential outbreak of a pandemic flu, such as bird flu;

- Increase funding for mental-health treatment, which has been devastated by federal budget cuts; and,

- Systematically study ways to solve health-care disparities that are hurting racial and ethnic minorities.

Challenges remain

To be sure, there is more work to do. I believe every citizen has a right to affordable health care and prescription medicines, and we are still far from this goal.

I was particularly disappointed the Legislature did not pass my Fair Share Health Care bill, which would prevent huge corporations like Wal-Mart from undercutting competitors by shifting millions of dollars of health costs to state taxpayers.

Still, we achieved far more in health care than anyone expected from this year's short legislative session. Lucille Ball would have been pleasantly surprised by how much good policy we passed in just 59 days to make Washington a healthier place to live.

State Rep. Eileen Cody, a registered nurse who represents the 34th District which covers West Seattle and North Highline. She can be reached at cody.Eileen@leg.wa.gov